Peru

Jennifer Joy Logan couldn't stop vomiting, lost consciousness in Peru

(Newser) -
A woman who went on a retreat in the Peruvian jungle ended up dead, and her family believes a nicotine-based tea she drank with a shaman is to blame. Jennifer Joy Logan, 32, of Saskatoon, was at the Canto Luz rainforest retreat center when she died on Jan. 17, the...
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Peru faces huge challenge protecting ancient sites

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A spectacularly ill-advised Greenpeace stunt did what authorities say is permanent damage to the ancient Nazca Lines, but archaeologists say the activists were just the latest in a long line of threats to Peru's heritage. Tomb raiders, developers, and illegal miners have destroyed or disturbed countless sites across the...
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Damage is permanent: officials

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Greenpeace is keeping mum when it comes to the identities of activists who displayed their message among the ancient Nazca Lines, leaving marks that officials call permanent. A drone investigation reveals the damage, which Peru's culture minister calls "irreparable," saying that "the apologies offered by the...
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Delegates sign off on 'watered-down' deal in Peru

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Climate negotiators salvaged a compromise deal in Lima early today that sets the stage for a global pact in Paris next year, but rejected a rigorous review of greenhouse gas emissions limits. More than 30 hours behind schedule, delegates from more than 190 countries agreed on what information should go...
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Activists left footprints at site of sacred Nazca lines

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An organization that bills itself as an environmental watchdog can't claim it's an archaeological one after an incident in Peru that's left that country steaming. Earlier this week, 20 Greenpeace activists with a clean-energy message for officials meeting in Lima for UN climate talks spread huge yellow...
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Suspected causes include disease, plastic ingestion, poisoning

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It could be pollution, a fatal illness, or even intentional poisoning by local fishermen. But while the cause may still be disputed, the fact that 500 dead sea lions ended up on a Peruvian beach is not. Both young and old sea lions were found rotting on Anconcillo beach about...
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At least 42 children, 76 llamas killed in possible offering to the sea

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Physical anthropologist John Verano has seen plenty while working in Peru over the last 30 years. What he came across this summer in the village of Huanchaquito, however, is "not what we've seen before, especially on the coast," he says. Locals noticed bones poking out of a...
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Settlers in Peru got there earlier than thought

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Archaeologists who found ancient settlements high up in the Peruvian Andes were surprised to learn that humans were there between 12,000 and 13,000 years ago. At nearly 3 miles above sea level, that makes them the "world's highest known Ice Age settlements," in the words...
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Cecilio Lopez fell, injured back deep inside Inti Machay cave

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A Spanish speleologist has been rescued in Peru after spending 12 days trapped about 1,300 feet underground in a cave in Peru's remote Amazon region. Cecilio Lopez was hurt when he fell about 16 feet inside the Inti Machay cave in a ravine in Leimebamba district. Rescuers brought...
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Google Earth spots more than 50 geoglyphs, including the enormous ancient symbol

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Google Earth can be used for more than peeking into your neighbor's backyard: Archaeologists have discovered more than 50 geoglyphs in Kazakhstan, thanks to images from the virtual geographical and map service, reports the International Business Times . Geoglyphs are large designs on the ground, usually created out of mounds...
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Pilot spots newly exposed Nazca lines

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Sandstorms in Peru have revealed mysterious designs believed to have been etched into the desert thousands of years ago. The newly exposed geoglyphs, discovered last week by a pilot flying over the region, include a snake nearly 200 feet long as well as a bird and some llama-like creatures, reports...
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Also, video shows young members' first contact

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A video that purports to show footage of first contact with a formerly isolated tribe on the Brazil-Peru border has been released by Brazil's FUNAI agency, along with some disturbing news from tribe members themselves. As had been hinted at in previous reports, some of the younger members say...
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Age-old process on coastline halted with departure of Incas

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The coming of the Spanish conquistadors changed Peru's shape forever—literally, according to researchers who say sand ridges stopped forming along the northern coast after the Incas were forced out of the area or killed by disease after Francisco Pizarro's 1532 arrival. Phys.org explains that radiocarbon dating...
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...but he has 24 years in prison to serve first

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The Dutchman long suspected of murdering American teenager Natalee Holloway in 2005 is going to face justice in the US—but not until 2038. Joran van der Sloot has 24 years left to serve in Peru for the murder of a 21-year-old student, and authorities have agreed to extradite him...
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Historic site boosts surveillance

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Machu Picchu is the victim of what could, Gawker notes, be a new international trend: naked travel. Peru's ruins are undergoing increased surveillance amid what might be termed a streaking crisis. Two men, a 30-year-old New Zealander and an 18-year-old Australian, were nabbed last year for nudity, the Guardian...
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Rhinella yunga lives in Peru, sans eardrums

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Scientists have discovered a new species of toad, but there's a good reason it took so long to find—from above, this one looks for all the world like a dead leaf. Rhinella yunga lives in the Peruvian Andes, specifically in the region known as the Yungas, reports the...
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Calls on citizens to report sightings

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Peru is experiencing "increased sightings of anomalous aerial phenomena," and it's ready to investigate. The country's air force is reopening the Department of Investigation of Anomalous Aerial Phenomena, an office established in 2001 to probe such sightings. It had been closed for five years, the Guardian...
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And one may have been wrapped alive, archaeologists say

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A site in Lima, Peru, that archaeologists have been excavating since 1981 has given up quite the find: an undisturbed tomb that's at least 1,000 years old—with two mummies inside. Dated to the Wari civilization of 600 to 1,000 AD, the bodies of one adult and...
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Peru, where counterfeiting is 'more profitable than cocaine'

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Forget cocaine: Peru's big money-maker is making money—the fake variety. Counterfeiting has taken off in the country, which has overtaken Colombia as the largest source of fake US currency in the last two years, the AP reports. The phony money typically finds its way into the US, Argentina,...
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Annual tradition pits heaven against earth

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If you thought humans against bulls was an alarming tradition, check out how they do it in Peru: condors against bulls. The cross-species fight is part of an annual Andean festival known as the Yawar Fiesta, or Blood Festival, in which wild condors are tied to the bulls' backs, then...
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